31WBGB Week 4: Analyze a Top Genealogy Blog

I have a confession to make. I’m relatively new to reading genealogy blogs, at least on a regular basis. I know, I know– long gone are the days in which you had to sign up to receive everything via email, so not wanting to press ‘delete’ 1000 times a day is no excuse. Yes, I do have a google account, and yes, I set up google reader ages ago, but I never used it as regularly as I should. Before the recent implementation of Google+ I would read all of my gmail from within my Mac Mail application (along with the dozen other email accounts I have…don’t ask) – so I was never signed into Google mail within a browser – which meant it would take an extra few steps to access the reader. As we all know so well, a couple of extra steps are not conducive to efficiency. In the name of having more time for research, efficiency becomes a big issue. So in the end I have all of these wonderful RSS feeds captured by google reader that I hardly ever read.

Even if I did read a blog post here and there, I was scattered about it. No regularity. I’d see a post on one blog that I liked, and read it. Then I’d see another post and read that one… and so on. But I didn’t read post after post on one particular blog or another. To make matters even more confusing (which is what I’m best at) I never had a memory for which blog I saw what on. I think Google has done this to me; it’s easier to just google “genealogy blog zombie” to find the hilarious post by Kerry Scott than it is to actually remember who wrote it.

Thus when I saw this week’s #31WBGB challenge, I knew I was in trouble. At first I thought I could do it. I went to a few of the blogs that I thought I regularly read, only to realize I really didn’t know that much about them. First off it would take hours to decide which one I admired the most. Then it would take days to become familiar enough with the blog to answer all of the #31WBGB questions about it.

I also found myself naming some of the more well known blogs, such as DearMyrtle and Dick Eastman, which, although wonderful, are just way too advanced for me to consider emulating right now. Then again, this is about blogs we admire, and those fit the bill pretty well. On the other hand, I would probably benefit more if I stay a bit closer to earth, but then I get back to the core problem – I’ve never paid that much attention to any one blog to know which one to pick. (See what I mean? Scattered.)

Things have changed recently. Since I’m using Google+ I have access to my Google reader constantly. Twitter has also helped a lot, but again, I’m a relatively new user without enough experience to solve all of the problems I’m having with this week’s challenge.

So I’m stuck. The main thing I did take away from this exercise is that sometimes the comments are just as helpful, if not more, than the original blog post. I learned this valuable lesson from Kerry’s blog Clue Wagon.

So I’m turning this to you… which blog would you pick, and what is your primary reason for picking it? Let us know in the comments. If you have already blogged about this then leave a comment with a link to your post. I look forward to hearing from you!

8 comments

It took me a while to get in the habit of using my Google Reader, but once I did, my blog-reading life changed dramatically for the better. If you’re on a Mac, you might also consider the Reeder app; it’s a fantastic way to use your Google Reader subscriptions in a separate app that is way nicer than Google Reader.

I really appreciated your comments on my recent posting on the topic of “Good Blog”. Like you I was slow to keep a note of where I picked up useful points on other blogs – getting better at it now, but I still have a lot to learn. about getting the most out of my site. Your “You Might Also Like” is something worth adopting, so many thanks for that idea.

Yes, the ‘you might also like’ is helpful from both the perspective of the reader and also the blogger since people more easily find other things that you’ve written. I can’t take credit for it though– I added it there after doing one of Tonia’s 31WBGB challenges, and I actually think I got the idea from seeing it on her blog!

I use geneabloggers as my main portal to genealogy blogs. There are so many wonderful bloggers out there. I do ‘follow’ many blogs were I find myself returning to often or we hae a similar research interest, but I never limit myself to those. That is Geneabloggers is ‘home base’.
Regards,
Theresa (Tangled Trees)

I use geneabloggers as my main portal to genealogy blogs. There are so many wonderful bloggers out there. I do ‘follow’ blogs if I find myself returning to them often or we have a similar research interest, but I never limit myself to those. That is why Geneabloggers is my ‘home base’.
Regards,
Theresa (Tangled Trees)

Hi Theresa, that sounds like an interesting idea but I’m trying to figure out how to implement it. Do you follow blogs by type or just use the search box at the site to find posts you might be interested in (or some other method of home base use)?